Ed is a Senior Business Systems Analyst
for Health Net. He is responsible for distance learning
technologies, process improvements, converting ILT to WBT,
and web conferencing technologies. His background in
elementary school teaching, systems engineering, and radio
broadcasting. Ed is based in the Sacramento, California (US)
area
Ed's Top 10 Tools as at
15 February 2008
Adobe
Captivate - Best price/performance capture,
course creation tool. Waiting for a simulation
development tool that does more, but doesn't cost an
arm and a leg.
Adobe
Dreamweaver - Until our IT department let us buy
this, we were stuck trying to create HTML in
Microsoft Word.
Articulate
Presenter - Great tool for PowerPoint
conversions, especially for quick turnaround
compliance course creation.
Articulate
Quizmaker - Just plain works when you pair this
with Articulate Presenter. Need standard knowledge
checks in your presentation? Works well all the
time.
Audacity
- Why spend limited funds on a commercial tool that
won't do all this free one does?
CourseLab
- I like this course creation tool mainly because it
is free, and it's potention to drive down the
ridiculous cost of some commercial course
development tools. The 2.4 version fixes some
issues with previous versions.
Google Docs
- We use the spreadsheet function to keep track of
LMS vendor issues, with all the admins contributing.
We use the presentations function to storyboard
with clients and among ourselves.
Microsoft
Powerpoint - The foundation of all rapid
development. Everybody has this, and it just works.
When converting from ILT to WBT, the tool forces
you to rethink what's really important and teach to
it rather than produce volumes of paper training
manuals.
Paint
Shop Pro - The most "approachable" picture
editor for my use.
SnagIt -
The one tool that every trainer MUST have in his/her
toolbox.
What are your
Top 10 Tools for learning? Let us know and help us to build
the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008
